Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!princeton!udel!rminnich From: rminnich@udel.EDU (Ron Minnich) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: CBM and upgrade paths ( My two cents ). Message-ID: <685@louie.udel.EDU> Date: Tue, 10-Nov-87 13:40:38 EST Article-I.D.: louie.685 Posted: Tue Nov 10 13:40:38 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 12-Nov-87 22:33:59 EST References: <8711040542.AA29099@violet.berkeley.edu> <2696@cbmvax.UUCP> <5807@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> <4410@well.UUCP> <2710@cbmvax.UUCP> Reply-To: rminnich@udel.EDU (Ron Minnich) Organization: University of Delaware Lines: 49 In article <2710@cbmvax.UUCP> hedley@cbmvax.UUCP (Hedley Davis) writes: >Oh man. Do you guys have any idea what its like checking out this >newsgroup every day, and seeing 2-5 MWM messages bitching and moaning ? > >And then, Leo gets on, and dumps alot of stories about all the bad >things we have done. ( Big ouch ). > >Nothing but negative stories, gripes, and moans about this or that and >so much of it is water under the bridge and can't be changed now, but >the complaining and whining just keeps on coming in. I am getting tired of this stuff too. I keep seeing things of the type: 'we made the Amiga and they f'ed it up!'. And 'we had the best bunch of people in the world at ALG'. And 'why did C= screw up the 1000'. And so on. For the record, there are lots of good engineers out there, not just restricted to ALG. And i discovered a few years ago that there was a real good group up at West Chester when i got a copy of the Sam's book on the Commodore 64- a machine of surprising sophistication given the market and pricing. A machine that is a lot more interesting engineering-wise than, say, a Mac. The 1000 was a wonderful machine. I have one. I also have a 500, and of the two i much prefer the 500. The 1000 has problems. First and most serious is SOTS. That was an ALG design and it was a mistake. Think of what a manufacturer of a SOTS card has to do: provide two connectors and a nice plastic housing. For a pc, a manufacturer provides a card with fingers built on. The SOTS card is inherently more expensive, especially when you have to amortize the machining for the dies for that nice plastic case over the small number of 1000s out there. Second big problem was KickStart. The whole point of the Amiga is that you can do so much more, especially with multitasking. But i can not multitask a V1.1 kickstart program and a V2.2 kickstart program! The original amigans argue that kickstart was a win; i think it was a botch. I am so happy with the 500 and not having to put that kickstart disk in. But let the marketplace decide, i think. And the marketplace is saying that the 1000 was positioned wrong (few sold, really, in relation to what it must have cost to develop) and that the 500 and 2000 are positioned just right (my dealer can not keep either in stock- they come in and they get sold right away- i had to reserve my 500). C= inherited a neat machine with some serious design problems. I think the 500 and 2000 have done a lot to remedy those problems. I think the 500 is one of the neatest machines i have seen in many years. A lot of people seem to agree. So, Hedley et. al., please do not get discouraged. You are doing real nice work. Thanks. -- ron (rminnich@udel.edu)